The good didn't outweigh the bad in this scenario.
The circle had their annual Wednesday meeting to discuss Arianna and the ritual. I should be whatever version of excited I could manage, but anyone discussing her meant discussing her death—her sacrifice. I wasn't 100% positive she was my Rosalia reborn without her memories or simply my loneliness finally catching up to me.
Nyx was outside, smoking off the loss, when I crept up the stairs to the faculty building. “How much did you tell her?”
He didn't shift his eyes to me in a violent way that I would have expected, when he finally asked me the question. Nyx didn't play by the rules any more than I did, yet his tone was all judgment and no rebellion.
“Enough.”
We had slipped right into the role of best friends when he transferred into Arcadia, but this was a two way street.
If you wanted information, then you had to give it.
Everyone was already there when we walked downstairs to the candlelit basement where we kept our secrets. Some of us were forced to wear them instead, like me—the curse of being an awful king. I had to protect us, put the circle first, while everyone acted “normal” for the fourteenth time.
I didn't bother sitting; I knew I wasn't staying long enough to hear any bullshit. Arianna had just poked the bear; we just lost another game to Caellum's team; and now I had to hear everyone plan to sacrifice Arianna during the ritual.
Cheyanne dropped a Ziplock bag on the table, like it spoke for itself when witchcraft wasn't any of our native tongues. It was the connection to home for her—focusing on the abilities that no one else had in contrast to the mortals surrounding us here.
With a huge sigh, she sat back and explained, “I did the spell. It's her. I nearly set fire to the dorms.”
Cheyanne did some kind of spell with the few strands of hair I managed to steal. I was helping them kill her. I didn't have much choice.
Kate was the first to react. “Seriously? Are you sure?”
She was used to life semi-human. She enjoyed it, actually. Going home wasn't on her priority list. She had Austin, and that's all she needed.
Human emotions came with the body: hormones, loneliness, jealousy, belonging, or in Kate’s case, love.
In this form, the emotions were like thunder rumbling through your bones, demanding every ounce of your damn attention and bleeding into everything else with ease.
“It means she can do the ritual, Kate. Keep up.”
I spoke to her without even looking in her direction, while I thumbed Arianna’s file sitting between books in a stack.
Why was it down here? What was Alba planning? What was in the basically empty file before he knew I was going to thumb through student files?
I wasn't in the habit of asking pointless questions without answers, which meant I better figure it out.
Glancing over my shoulder, I watched them all enthusiastically entranced with a possible way out of this.
A graduation from this purgatory.
That was all I needed. Enough hope created a flame, and everyone was drawn to the flame. Rolling up the bulkier file, I shoved it under my shirt and halfway down my pants, trying to conceal what I was going to take without permission.
She was mine, so by extension, her file was mine too. Now all I needed was a quick getaway.
Creeping out of the room was easy, except when it came to Nyx. I glanced over the group one last time before I climbed the stairs, and his eyes were trying to pierce through me, tacking me to the wall and demanding answers. I didn't have any. I didn't know why I was protecting Arianna in one breath and serving her up to the circle in the next. My heart and head were in a constant battle.
One was going to win—either the knife of logic or my bleeding heart.
My body couldn't keep up with my desire to get back to my dorm room to crack open whatever news was in her file.
This was a time I really wished for abilities, but wishing didn't make some bullshit abilities suddenly appear.
I was the only one cursed with even more normalcy.
Bolton
I was still in the hallway on the wrong side of my door, when I opened the file and thumbed through the information, including a police report and restraining order marked with McAllen, Texas Police Department at the top of both.
I really couldn't be surprised someone else felt like Arianna wasn't their cup of tea either, but to this degree? Police and restraining orders?
I guess she had as many secrets as I did.
Now I didn't feel as bad for being an asshole to protect mine.
I read the report more closely, even though the information just gave case numbers and files to reference beyond this sheet. This was a placeholder stating she was a minor, and it was sealed up for her own protection.
This world separates mistakes as an adult and adolescent like it will determine your character. They can’t send you off into the adult world already stained.
In my world, all mistakes are punishable, and the severity depended which god you pissed off.
Zeus was the one you didn't piss off… ever.
I should know. He was my king, and I was one of his subjects. We all were. We were created from anger, honor, lust, desperation, need, respect, despair… all written in the stars for a reason.
I was immortalized for saving a family when Zeus honored my sacrifice with a constellation forever in the sky. That was my first death I outlived. I thought that it would be the only death.
Our essences, who we truly were, are immortalized, reborn with each death. And when lost, only the circle could take us home, at least that's what the legends have told us before our gods died.
Now, I was pretty sure the magic of them was going to die with us too.
The file gave me enough to go on without any real facts. The rest would be easy to pry from Arianna. At first, her hate was real; now, it was her playing pretend. I was pretending too—not to protect my heart like she was, but to protect her from a certain death.
If it meant going home, then the circle would do whatever that took. Fourteen people came before and died, just for us to see the desperation in our eyes while they bled out, and we were still stuck here like some bad joke.
Clearly, we didn’t learn our lesson. We convinced each other it was a fluke and not the right person, even after carefully vetting them.
I had fourteen different people’s blood on my hands—blood I couldn’t wash away. I fell from honor and grace, pretty quickly.
I was going to hide the file in my room before I decided to use it against Arianna when I pushed her for the missing answers.
I texted her, while I still stood in my hallway on the wrong side of my door.
Me: Meet me in the library. Come alone.
Arianna: Why, so you can blow me off again? I’m not in the mood to be Nancy Drew tonight. Role play with someone else.
Me: Truce?
It was the only way I could justify gaining her answers, by giving her something in return: a truce. I knew she wouldn’t let that slip by her. Henry Jon was teasing her with every page, and there was no real conclusion in sight. He went crazy, leading every witch hunt and losing everyone’s trust, trying to find Rosalia. No one believed him, and all he had were the pages of his journal, hoping to save someone’s favorite.
The library closed every night at 9 p.m., but our keycards worked no matter what time it was. Clearly a weak spot in their security. I slipped inside, even closing the door behind me slowly and carefully, just in case security was doing rounds.